Mother Nature Does Best

It never ceases to amaze me how effective Mother Nature is. We can work quite hard planting and caring for plants but can't get close to how well Mother Nature does it. This Columbine plant is a perfect example. Years ago, we planted some Columbine plants in a flower bed. Mother Nature took a seed from that plant and placed it in the crack between two patio stones last year. And walla this beautiful plant grew. It was smaller last summer but survived the winter to become a giant plant this year. We still have plants in the flower bed but none are as big as this plant. Many thanks to Mother Nature.

Oak Leaf Resurgence

The Oak Leaf Hydrangeas are coming back from their winter dormant state. A neat thing about this plant is the old flowers are still hanging one while the new growth is unfolding around it. soon these should be fully green setting new flowers for the cycle to start over again.

Stunningly Beautiful Trees

The past week the weather was warm and the trees loved it. They exploded with flowers providing a stunning display of spring colors. I probably say this every year but the cherry tree was so full of bright white flowers with a touch of pink that you almost needed sunglasses to look right at it. Behind it is a smaller redbud with the purple flowers adding some contrast to the brightness of the cherry. Sadly tonight it is going to get cold again so spring isn't here to stay yet.

Fuzzy Deer Pictures

I decided to aim the camera at the fence to get a shot of some of the deer wandering our neighborhood and they showed up. However shooting the picture through the chain-link fence produced less than clear pictures. The first picture is a nice sized doe and the second is a little like those hidden item pictures. There are at least three deer maybe four in the picture.

Wild and Crazy Toads

A couple of day ago, we had a 70 degree day and as we've seen in past years, this brings out the toads. One of the strangest sites we see with the toads is them creating a "frog ball" where more than one male grabs on to the same female. This frog ball which was floating in the pond is three males and one female. These frogs are so focused, I was able to pick them out of the water and put them on the rock. They rolled around back into the water.

Camellia Visitors

We were trying to figure out who was eating the Camellia bush so I set the camera to capture the culprit. I don't suspect the cat roaming around at midnight or the giant crows after the recent snow. We'll see who shows up in future pictures.